Preserving the secret of the Prophet’s Family

“Do you like Allah and His messenger to be considered as liars? Talk to people with what they know and do not tell them what they deny.”

“I heard the Prophet (S) saying: “Do not tell people of what they do not know. Do you like Allah and His messenger to be considered as liars?”

“Abu Abdullah Ja’far bin Muhammad (Imam as-Sadiq) said to me: “O Abdul A’la, undertaking our matter is not by knowing and accepting it. It is by preserving and keeping it secret from those, who are not reliable. Deliver…

“Knowing this matter is not enough to prove your loyalty unless you keep it secret from those, who are not reliable. It suffices you to say what we have said and to be silent on what we have been silent on. If you tell…

“Undertaking our matter is not by believing and accepting it only. Undertaking our matter is by preserving and keeping it secret from those, who are not qualified for it. Deliver my greeting to them (the Shia) and tell…

“He, who spreads our (secret) traditions, is like one, who denies our right.”

“When I tell someone a tradition and he spreads it as he hears it from me, he will deserve to be cursed and repudiated.” He meant that if that someone would spread the tradition among those who were not reliable or…

I heard Abu Abdullah as-Sadiq (as) saying: Some people pretend that I am their imam. By Allah, I am not their imam. May Allah curse them. Whenever I put a curtain they tore it! I say so and so and they say: he means so…

“By Allah, if your mouths were bound with bands, I would tell every one of you something. By Allah, if I found (atqiya’) among you, I would talk. Allah is the Assistant!”

I heard Abu Ja’far (Imam al-Baqir) saying: “It is a secret that Allah has revealed to Gabriel, Gabriel revealed to Muhammad, Muhammad revealed to Ali and Ali revealed to those, whom Allah willed, one after the other but…

“I hold your hand as Abu Abdullah (as) has held my hand and said to me: “O Mufadhdhal, this matter is not achieved by saying only. No, by Allah, it is not so until (our companions) preserve it as Allah has preserved it,…

“I came to Abu Abdullah (as) when his mawla al-Mu’alla bin Khunays was killed. He said to me: “O Hafs, I have told al-Mu’alla of some things but he spread them then he was afflicted with (iron). I have said to him: We…